Thursday, April 29, 2010

My sewing machine has finally returned, and BOM block 11 is all stitched up. The points of the brown fabric haven't worked at all; I've never stitched two pieces together where the angle of the seam is different, so that was a bit of a boo-boo, but I figure it'll add character.

My machine has also come home with a new voice; I'm not sure if that is normal post-service, but she has had her belt reset which could explain it. She may have even sounded like this when I got her, but for ages she has been deep "voiced" and rattly, so this new higher hum is change...

Now I'm ready to stitch the next border on Summerwind, and start assembling the BOM finishing kit. See you soon!

Sunday, April 25, 2010

It was a lovely 28 degrees up in Queensland yesterday, and I've come home to an overcast 15 degrees in Melbourne today. Makes me wish I could move up there for the winter! I had a good break; spent my mornings eating muffins and drinking hot chocolates, and spent time at the beach, as well as catching up with family. A new baby arrived to one of my mum's cousins while we were there, however we didn't get to meet him.

As I'm still (very impatiently) waiting to get my sewing machine back, there isn't too much going on here. I've spent today cutting all the fabric for the Mystery BOM finishing kit. Lots of pieces but it looks pretty simple to put together. I'll be ready to piece like crazy when I get my machine on Wednesday.

I'm also finding that the finishing kit, along with each of the monthly packages, has a lot of spare fabric. This will be a test of my stash/scrap busting skills! I've seen a few people are working on quilts from "Scrap Basket Suprises" and I think this might be a good book to add to my collection. The fabrics used in the book aren't my cup of tea, but I'm sure they would look great in anything.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Most people are into stash busting, but I don't really have much of a stash...I do however tend to have lots of bits leftover from quilts I've made. Sometimes whole fat quarters from a bundle, other times just excess bits and pieces. And usually I put them away and hope that at some point all my scraps will come together, but given my quilts vary from traditional fabrics to the more bright and funky sort, I don't really see this happening any time soon.

When I made Red Velvet recently, I carefully put aside all of the offcut triangles, then later stitched them into HSTs then into little pinwheels. And they've been sitting by my machine ever since. With a little motivation (and perhaps procrastination from my current project?), I did a bit of scribbling and came up with this cute table runner.

It uses left over outer border for the sashing, and inner border for the border. I'll use the same backing and binding as the quilt too. I'm heading to Queensland next week for a holiday, so I thought I'd tuck this into my bag for a bit of handstitching in the evening. It might also keep me busy when I get back as I'm finally sending my machine for a service; I figure if I send it off while I'm away, I minimise my "machine-less" time.

In case you haven't noticed the new addition to my sidebar, there is a link up for a facebook group for Bella's Patchwork, as a means of keeping everyone up to date with news, so if you'd like to be in the loop, become a fan. I'd love to have you!

Monday, April 12, 2010

Wild Thing is quilted, bound, and already in use as a couch quilt as the weather turns cold. After more than 120 days, Melbourne has finally had a day under 20 degrees, and it seems that winter is on the way.

Friday, April 2, 2010

I'm going a little off-topic today; I don't have a quilt picture yet, so I'm hoping to distract you with something else. As part of setting up my business, I decided that I needed a filing cabinet to keep myself organised. But do you think I could find anything that fitted under my desk, didn't cost a fortune, and wasn't grey!

I compromised, and bought one that was cheap, small and grey...and took to it with a can of pink spray paint! It's been a week in the making, with a couple of coats of white primer, then a couple of cans of spray paint. It's not perfect, but it sure beats having a grey cabinet in my bedroom (which is also my "office")!

It used to look like this:

And now it looks like this:

And I've got cute blue files just for a bit of contrast:

Mini Jelly Filled is coming soon, I promise, I just need to hand-stitch the binding down...

About Me

I'm a Melbourne girl with a passion for food, wine, travel…and quilting. I also love spending time in the garden and the kitchen; there is nothing like a cake fresh out of the oven! My latest adventure is running my own online quilt shop while continuing to dabble in science, and trying to squeeze in as much travel as possible.